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  • From: "Beth Spaugh" <lists AT rhomestead.com>
  • To: "'Market Farming'" <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Soy-free, Corn-free Chicken Feed: Why?
  • Date: Mon, 16 Aug 2010 22:44:11 -0400

I agree that marketing meats is part of market farming.  I did almost suggest that the person asking join the American Pastured Poultry Producers Association (apppa.org) at the higher level to have access to that listserv.  There are feed consultants on there and others who are grappling with trying to use non-GMO feeds.
 
Beth Spaugh
Rehoboth Homestead, Peru, NY
Farm Fresh Food Club CSA - http://rhomestead.com 
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Garden fresh vegetables, organically grown, and pastured chicken, duck, and geese
 
"How we eat determines, to a considerable extent, how the world is used." - Wendell Berry
 
"Without power over our food, any notion of democracy is empty." - Frances Moore Lappe
 


From: market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:market-farming-bounces AT lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of KAKerby AT aol.com
Sent: Monday, August 16, 2010 11:18 AM
To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Soy-free, Corn-free Chicken Feed: Why?

We also have gotten questions about whether we feed GMO-free crops at market this year.  While mouse droppings in grain isn't on the general public's Top 10 list of concerns, GMO crops are starting to be.  I can only applaud that increased awareness even if there's still a need for some reality-check education.  We've been in the opposite situation of having to justify why we're still using crops and feeds which may have been GMO contaminated, rather than trying to "sell" people on the idea of why we should switch to non-GMO.  I've lost egg sales thanks to customers who are adamant that they want non-GMO foods, who then go in favor of folks who advertise as such.  If we did a cold hard analysis of their feeds vs mine I suspect there would be little difference.  While we could argue over contamination percentages and real vs perceived risk, those are still lost sales.  We were already looking for GMO alternatives for a variety of other reasons, and that just cemented our commitment to find those alternatives.
 
That being said, I have not yet found a packaged feed that successfully avoids the Big Three GMO crops - soy, corn and canola.  While the latter isn't a huge ingredient in poultry feed, it has been used a lot in conditioning oils for hoofed stock and we buy feed for a dozen different livestock species.  So we've been looking a lot at custom mixes and/or mixing our own.  There is a mill in western OR that we would love to work with but they're too far away to realistically ship product all the way up here cost effectively.  If you've found a local mill that can provide such feed at a competitive basis, I strongly believe the market for those non-GMO meats is only going to increase.  In fact if I had ready access to such feeds, I'd include that in my marketing.  I suspect you'll find less and less need to explain the "why", while others (like us) will have to justify the "why not".  And at the end of the day I think that's probably actually a positive development.
 
Now, so far this doesn't really have a lot to do with market farming I suppose, since it's not strictly veggies production.  But our ultimate solution has been and continues to be, to grow as much of our own feeds as we can.  Along with that, we'd be growing and possibly selling small grains to human consumers, which puts this squarely into a niche market via either farmer's markets or CSA.  We feel like we've been babes in the woods for many years on the topic of small scale, small grains production, with precious little info or interest available.  But just in the last few years there's been a huge increase in interest, not only in raising but also buying such small scale production.  I've fielded more requests for such purchases from potential buyers this year than all the previous years combined.  So the topics of GMO-free feeds, and possible new income streams for a small scale farm, are not very far removed and could ultimately complement each other.
 
Thank you for raising this question.  I think this interest in, and pursuit of, GMO-free food and feed, will only increase in the future.  Consider yourself poised on the threshold of being able to make the most of that trend.  Not a bad place to be.
Kathryn Kerby
frogchorusfarm.com
Snohomish, WA 
 
In a message dated 8/15/2010 8:14:39 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, benjamin.l.wiener AT us.army.mil writes:
so switch to oats and wheat and fish or alfalfa meal.  there is a sheep and goat ration mixer I found off the internet that lists all sorts of feed stuffs and you can play with it until you get the ration you want. google it. Frankly I think you're nuts.  if fewer than 5% of samples contained more than .1% GMO, then there is more mouse droppings in the feed than GMO crops. get over it!

Ben



----- Original Message -----
From: Chrys Ostrander <chrys AT thefutureisorganic.net>
Date: Sunday, August 15, 2010 20:22
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Soy-free, Corn-free Chicken Feed: Why?
To: Market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org


> I had mentioned in my post about chicken feed that I am dealing
> with
> certified organic feed. Certified organic chicken feed that
> contains
> corn and soy is "supposed" to be GMO-free, however, contamination
> of
> /organic /soy and corn is increasing. In 2001, "...organic corn
> and soy
> products [were found to contain] GM material at 0.1 percent or
> lower. In
> a study analyzing organic soy products, Genetic ID [a private
> testing
> service] found fewer than 5 percent of samples contained more than
> 0.1
> percent GM material."
> http://naturalfoodsmerchandiser.com/tabId/110/itemId/869/pageId/11/Minimal-GMO-Contamination-Found-in-Organic-Product.aspx
>
> However, in a more recent article from /The Organic and Non-GMO
> Report/,
> a spokesperson for an anonymous organic growers' organization is
> paraphrased as saying "as many as one-third of organic corn loads
> test
> positive for GMOs at a low level. 'Ears of corn may have a handful
> of
> kernels that test positive. All we know is it's becoming an
> increasingly
> difficult issue' [he said] ".
> http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_20568.cfm
>
> And in 2009, John Fagan, PhD, chairman and chief scientific
> officer at
> Genetic ID said ** "It is definitely more of a problem now. There
> are
> some sectors of the industry where you can find double-digit
> levels of
> contamination."
> http://nutritionbusinessjournal.com/natural-organics/news/0324-
> organic-seeds-increasingly-danger-gmo-contamination/
>
> So, first off I want to defend organic growers, after all, we are
> victims of genetic trespass, but it's worth mentioning that the
> spokesperson quoted above did not want to be identified for fear
> of
> losing markets.  Testing for GMO's is happening at many points in
> the
> organic supply chain. Sometimes contamination is identified and
> the
> product loses its organic status. Likely there are other times GMO
> contamination is found, but nothing is said and the product moves
> to the
> next link in the chain.
>
> The Organic Consumers Assoc. cites the following: "Consuming milk
> and
> meat from animals fed crops that are genetically engineered is
> also
> risky. In a survey of milk products sold in stores in Italy,
> results
> from the screening of 60 samples of 12 different milk brands
> demonstrated the presence of GM maize sequences in 15 (25%) and of
> GM
> soybean sequences in 7 samples (11.7%)."
> http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_19992.cfm
>
> So, as a preventative against ingesting GMO foods, one should
> certainly
> avoid soy and corn, /even if it's organic/. Hence one /major
> reason/ to
> use soy-free and corn-free chicken feed.
>
> Chrys
>
> *Chrys Ostrander, Director of Farming Programs
> p.e.a.c.h. Community Farms and Gardens*
> People for Environmental Action and Community Health
>
> *p.e.a.c.h. Community Farm at Pine Meadow*
> 10425 S. Andrus Rd.
> Cheney, Wa 99004
> 509-448-3066
> chrys AT thefutureisorganic.net
> www.peachlocal.com
> /"Our Fresh Future for Spokane"/
>
>
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